


Sonic 0fix (A Sonic 2006 fix-it fic)

by frichard_45



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Adaptation, Fix-It, Gen, Sonic 2006, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:35:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24840916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frichard_45/pseuds/frichard_45
Summary: Sonic the Hedgehog wasn't too surprised when his vacation to Soleanna was interrupted by another one of Dr. Eggman's nefarious schemes, but little is he aware that a greater evil is brewing as the interweaving stories of Silver, a time-traveller from a ruined future determined to save the world, and Shadow, the Ultimate Lifeform whose past still lingers over him, start to reveal the designs of a hell-bent god. All things point to Sonic's new friend, Queen Elise III, being the key to this oncoming disaster.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	1. Dream of an Absolution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This world has been devastated for as long as people remember, and everyday Silver and Blaze fight to contain the Flames of Disaster in the city. This changes when a mysterious figure comes, claiming to possess the truth, and a way to stop this catastrophe from ever happening.

This world was devastated before he was born. Its all anyone would ever tell him, but Silver the Hedgehog reckoned he could have told of that by himself. He patrolled the tarred skies of what had once been the metropolis.Crisis City they called it ––again, no one told him why. It always seemed wrong to him; was there a city that wasn’t in crisis?

He perched himself on a blackened skyscraper, letting his energy recharge so that, once again, he could lift himself in his telekinetic aura, shimmering green again the haze of red that swept the ruins. He went down into the streets, or where the streets may once have been. Some of the highways were intact, but on the verge of crumbling. The ground level, however, was a sea of lava, roaring, churning, constantly flowing. Every hour the foundations of another building would give way, and another skyscraper would collapse, either breaking down under its own weight, or falling into another and setting off a small chain reaction with ten ––fifteen or so building tumbling into the ever-consuming lava. Every hour, on the hour. Nothing every changed.

“Silver!” A voice called over the repeated rumbling of the storm clouds.

Silver turned to see a purple figure dashing on a different rooftop across the way, springing into the air, and planting the graceful landing next to him. She was a cat, dressed in a fine fur-lined but overall practical dress that was only a little scuffed. Her expression was cool but determined, maybe a little fixed in the eyebrow but otherwise betraying no emotion; not at all like Silver.

“Blaze? What’s wrong?” he asked.

“He’s appeared again!” Blaze the Cat pointed to the gathering clouds, “Full form, level one ––down by the westside.”

Silver looked towards it, and grimaced. He gripped his hand with a flourish in his fingers, stretching against the fabric of his white gloves with a squeak. Without another word, he lifted off, enshrined in his green aura.

They hurtled through the city,Silver tearing through the air, Blaze running and twirling from rooftop to rooftop. The inferno ahead of them, which peaked from behind a large row of skyscrapers, roared louder as they approached. A taut feeling spread across the Hedgehog’s chest. He prepared himself, imagining how he would use his telekinesis in the ensuing fight, as he had done before many times. He needed to beat them every time; they only needed to beat him once.

Beyond the skyscrapers and they reached Westside. An entire building was on its side and they landed on it. Cars which had fallen from the broken highway above were sliding down the slope, but Silver and Blaze manoeuvred with grace. Then they emerged. The monstrosities, red as hell, lumbering towards them, and spat fire.

“Outta my way!”

Silver reached with his mind, grabbing an entire car. With both physical and mental effort, he hurtled towards the monsters. It killed some. Others retreated, but they would be back. They were always back.

The two ran up the building, but the tip was started to crumble. Silver knew he could make it, but a hand grabbed his shoulder and held him back just at the cracks.

“Silver, patience,” Blaze said.

“We don’t have time!”

But Blaze shook her head. The cracks ripped apart and the building’s top fell into the lava-filled abyss, leaving behind nothing but steel beams.

“Oh! I see!”

Silver ran to the tip of a beam, held his gloved palm to the metal at his feet, where a green glow arose. Blaze came to his side and held onto his arm. The beam pulled down, with the tension audible in the creaking of the steal. Then Silver released. The beam sprung them all the way across the empty space over the lava, and they landed on a charred concrete overpass, where they set off once again.

Monsters came up on their way;beasts, birds and serpentine claws, all composed of fire and rock. Silver’s breath felt like fire as well, and he dispatched each creature with a grimace on his face. Rocks, cars, pipes, he threw whatever he found to destroy them. They were fighting harder as Silver and Blaze moved along, and there were more of them. Iblis was not far now.

They turned the block, where they found, not Iblis, but a swirling tornado of spire, spitting out slags of what used to be the city.A car bumper grazed past Blaze, and though she dodged it she fell onto the ground. Silver guided a wall to cover them as Blaze pulled herself back up.

“How do we get around that?” Silver asked.

“If we split up, it will be harder for him to get a hit on us,” she suggested.

“But then we’ll be vulnerable to the minions.”

The cat shrugged, “I can make it, and I know you can. Iblis is over that intersection. We’ll meet up there.”

Silver gritted his teeth but it made sense. They split ways, Blaze dashing onto a rail and Silver creating a path for himself with hovering rubble. She was right, but so was he. The tornado’s volleys crashed past him, but the monsters get the heat up.

“Take this!” he yelled, feeling out for the steel beams to one building and ripping them out with his mind. The entire building came crashing down before him, and a whole army of the minions died, though new ones quickly took their place. He didn’t stick around for their counter-attack.

Finally, he came past the intersection, and found a pit of fuming magma, with leaning skyscrapers dotted around, slowly falling to their demise.

“Iblis! Face me,” Silver called out.

The magma began to churn, and a black rock form began to rise. It wasn’t merely rock, but a golem, a giant fiery creature with four arms and three horns around it reptilian head. It rose and rose, towering over Silver, towering over the pit and the all the skyscrapers. It was immense. It stood before him like a God.

“It’s time to end this!” Silver shouted, directing his finger at the behemoth, but the words were hollow in his chest.

Iblis roared. Iblis laughed. Silver gritted his teeth again, and braced himself. Like the tornado, the beast threw the ruined city at him. The Hedgehog caught it, but it came as such a force that it was like it pulled his mind back, like if he had caught it with his hands and it knocked him over. No matter. He could do this. With all his thought, he tossed the green-glowing slag right back at the monster, where it collided with a great shattering. Iblis roared. Iblis screeched.

The horns broke away. All that was left was its fiery head. Iblis lifted four giant fists high and smashed against the floor on which Silver stood. It tremored, shaking Silver unbalance. He looked up to find a fist was headed straight towards him, and in that moment a shiver gripped Silver sot hat he couldn’t move. The fist was coming right at him. Then something shoved him aside, and the fist pulverised the concrete where he had just stood, but he was not dead.

“Blaze?” Silver cried.

“Quick, hold him down,” she yelled.

Silver obliged, staring at the fist with intent. It glowed green, and no matter how much is struggled, it did not break free. Blaze dashed along the arm and jumped up high. She then burst, engulfed in a flame, shining gold against the red flame of the world. The blazing cat then twirled down in a drill motion, and severed the arm with a clean swoop. Iblis screeched again, and though the sound wrenched Silver’s gut, it did not stop him from taking the severed arm and launching it back at the beast.

Iblis began to collapse, falling back into the magma, which receded, trickling away. The pit dimmed, but for the last embers of Blaze’s golden fire. Now the fight was over, Silver could feel the tremors in his hands and feet. His light grey quills were covered in soot and concrete dust, though he could only see this in the periphery of his vision. He was staring at Blaze, not blinking.

“Silver, is something wrong?” she asked as the last ember went out.

Silver had seen her fire before, a few times. It didn’t mean he was entirely used to it.

“Nothing,” he decided on saying, “Thanks for helping me with Iblis.”

“As always.”

* * *

The glow of Crisis City began to dull. It was almost like night, but Silver and Blaze could never really tell. They wandered, taking some of the roads not yet burned, or otherwise journeying along ledges or through the eery ruins of the buildings. Neither spoke for a while. The only sound that accompanied them was the occasional crash of another falling tower, and the rumbling of the storm not yet over.

They came down to a crevice between two buildings, shrouded in shadow but for the glimmer of light from the space above them. The silhouette of Blaze sparked a campfire, and a band of gold illuminated the lower end of her face and the tips of her whiskers.

“We can rest for now,” Blaze said, “it will probably be a few days before he comes back from that.”

“If we go to the Flame Core, we could push him out of the city….”

“Too risky,” she said, quite and nonchalant.

“I know,” he said through clenched teeth, “but if we don’t do anything he’ll just nurse back to health.”

“We need to do the same.”

“It’s just ––urgh!”

He whacked the back of his fist against a wall, scuffing the fabric of his gloves. Blaze gave him a look, piercing enough to tell him that punching walls wasn’t going to solve anything, but when she next spoke, she said it with a more soothing tone:

“Silver, calm down.”

“I’m… I’m calm,” he slumped down by the fire, “it’s just I wish this could end. Just find some way to destroy him for good. We can’t just keep fighting forever, right? There’s got to be a point to all this?”

“I don’t know, Silver. Maybe….”

“How then? How can we destroy Iblis?”

**“You’re asking the wrong question.** ”

Silver felt a chill and looked up. It wasn’t Blaze who had spoken but a deeper voice. A darker voice.

“The question is,” the voice continued, “why should it even be this way?”

Blaze turned around, and they both saw, coming out of the shade of the doorway, a black hedgehog. His face was hard to make out under his cowl, but his body seemed thin and he was leaning on a walking stick.

“Civilians are not allowed in Crisis City,” Blaze said.

Silver ignored this and asked, “what do you mean, why should it be this way?”

The hedgehog chuckled, but then shifted his glance to Blaze and said, “people need to live. I simply choose here. Why are you two here?”

Blaze looked to Silver and he obliged to explain:

“I’m one of the vigilant.”

“I’ve not heard of them.”

Silver looked to the floor, “well, there aren’t many of us left. Iblis reigns in Crisis City, Station Square, Grand Metropolis and a few other places. We’re meant to fight him in these hotspots to contain him. It’s the only reason the Earth hasn’t been destroyed yet, but…we’ve lost many people over the years.”

“There’s a camp to the north of here in Shamar,” Blaze explained to the shrouded hedgehog, “you can make it in three days. They’ll have food and shelter.”

“But I don’t want to leave,” the hedgehog said with another chuckle, “I want to change things. I want to help you, Silver the Hedgehog. And to help you, you need to learn the truth.”

“Who are you?” Silver asked.

“My name… my name is Mephiles.”

* * *

The black hedgehog, Mephiles, led them into the depths of the building. It was a dingy and cold place. Silver’s breath was raggedy, his mouth was dry and, perhaps due to the recent fight, or something else, his muscles were twitching all over. Yet he had the strongest urge to keep following this hedgehog. Blaze was uneasy too, though Silver guessed she was leaning more to leaving this crazy old codger to himself.

As they came down the greyest of corridors, the shrouded figure spoke up.

“What do you think Iblis is, Silver the Hedgehog?” he asked in that deep, but forceful voice.

“The Flames of Disaster,” Silver said, “they’ve ravaged the world for decades. I don’t know why, though.”

“Indeed, it’s just raw power, lacking a mind to contain it,” Mephiles said, place emphasis on every letter. “Fools thought they could control it and paid the price for their folly. What of you Silver? Why do you think you can stop the Flames?”

His ears perked up, and he said, “because I have to! It’s what I’ve trained for, all my life, ever since the vigilant ones found me. We’re the only people who ever tried to do something instead of squabbling over what little is left in the unburned lands. So we fight because we have to, because no-one else will.”

Mephiles chuckled once again. There was something about the pace and deepness of the way Mephiles laughed that made Silver’s quills stand on end.

“If you fight as you have, you will never win. Failure is inevitable. The future is done.”

“What’s your angle?” Blaze’s eyes narrowed. “People don’t talk as elusively as you do unless they’re out to get something.”

“Well, what of you, Blaze?” Mephiles asked, “who are you? Are you a vigilant one also?”

“I’m just a friend.”

“Blaze just showed up one day saying she knew I needed help,” Silver found himself explaining, “I don’t know where she’s from; she won’t tell me. But I know that I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for her.”

“The two of you are a set, clearly,” the old hedgehog mused. “You will both be needed for what I have planned.”

“What plans?” Blaze asked.

“That answers to all your questions are in here,” Mephiles gestured to a door with a tattered ‘keep out’ sign. “Will you come in?”

“Yes,” Silver said.

“Very well,” Blaze sighed.

The room was small and threadbare, but for a few knocked over chairs. The most notable thing was a large black screen on the other end, but it didn’t look like it had been used for decades. There wasn’t much old technology that still worked, even outside of the Iblis hotspots.

“A flower comes from a seed, a chicken comes from an egg. Everything has origin.”

Mephiles turned to face Silver. It was still dark, so much that Silver couldn’t make out the hedgehog’s mouth.

“To stop Iblis,” Mephiles continued, “you must stop the Flames of Disaster from ever being released. I have worked for some time on this, looking for the key. I think I have it now.”

In his hand, which was also white-gloved, Mephiles held a large purple gem. What little light there was danced in the lattices, but it was as if the gem emanated its own aura.

“What is it?” Silver asked.

Blaze’s eyes widened.

“An Emerald of the Sun,” she explained. “It converts thoughts into power.”

“Such a thing only brings Chaos, and thus is it named,” Mephiles said as placed it into a receptacle at the computer’s base.

The Computer whirred up, and the screen flashed cyan. Logs and documents filtered onto the screen. Data, historical records, displays that Silver couldn’t even parse. Mephiles pressed a key, and then video recordings began to play. It showed something entirely strange. A rustic town, neither the fiery hell of Crisis City or the dull torment of the refugee camps, but a pleasant place. It didn’t stay that way. Machines reigned down, firing into crowds, catching and harassing the citizens. Missiles crashed into the houses, and flames began to spread. Humans lined up with rifles and fired back, but the machines overwhelmed them.

“What is this?” Silver asked, his eyes darting all across the screen, watching for every detail of the calamity.

“The Day of Disaster,” Mephiles explained, “brought about by the Battle of Soleanna.”

“Brought about?”

“Yes, keep watching.”

Silver did, and soon it came clear. The Battle descended into more desperate fighting, but then a new force erupted. Flames, and very familiar flames at that. The monstrosities, ––beast, bird and claw alike–– swept up from the ground and started attacking human and machine alike. Then, a great torrent of flame charged through the streets, rising into the sky, and causing the footage itself to static out.

“Oh my,” Blaze gasped.

Mephiles went to press some more keys while he explained:

“I long thought the Battle alone was the cause, but this is not so. You see, there was a visitor from afar, the one responsible for this catastrophe!”

“Who?”

A new video screen came up, showing the same fighting but from a different angle. A blue whir flitted across the screen, and then appeared again in the middle. A hedgehog, a blue hedgehog, holding a blue Chaos Emerald. Once again, the fire erupted, the monsters came, and the footage ended. Silver looked to Blaze, who was biting her lip.

“I suppose it must be true,” the cat said. “But how can we change that?”

Stepping away from the console, Mephiles became more shrouded as he fell into the shadow. It was hard to make out what he was thinking, or about to say. The Purple Emerald hovered at his hand.

“We will need to go back in time and change the past,” he said.

Silver stared at him.

“No way!”

“Mephiles, what’s happening?” Blaze asked, alarm in her voice.

Silver looked to her and back again. What did she mean? Then he saw it. The Emerald was glowing, and dust was swirling about the floor, in a circular motion around Mephiles. Then a vortex,blindingly bright, burst from the Emerald and through an invisible force dragged Silver and Blaze in.

“Mephiles!” Silver shouted but to no avail.

**“Find the Iblis Trigger,”** he heard the dark voice directly in his mind. **”Find him and change the world!”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And away we go. This idea started off as a joke in a writing server I'm in but I'm half-seriously pursuing it. I always felt that the problems in Sonic 2006, though running deep, were not fundamental and that there was a good story to be told here. This chapter is very close to how Silver's story opens though with a little more detailed filled about how the future world works, (hopefully) more polished dialogue and a tweak to how Mephiles is presented (he's supposed to be creepy but I feel if you actually knew someone had no mouth you'd be a little wary.) 
> 
> I absolutely adore Silver and think the Silver/Blaze duo is a great dynamic so it was a lot of fun adapting this and I look forward to seeing more of them.


	2. His World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this a while back but never got around to proofing, and subsequently never posted. I really haven't found time or motivation for this project and I'm not sure if I will be continuing with it but I do still want to. I just felt it would be a waste not to post what I wrote

**200 YEARS EARLIER**

* * *

A wind caught the night’s air. The hem of her dress flapped by her ankles as the breeze swelled around her. There was nothing she could do to stop the odd swan feather flying off and carrying over the skin of the water, oft bobbing on the surface and causing ripples where the wind dare not disturb. The wind was only felt by her and not the world around her. 

Dark magenta clouds swirled in the black sky, far above the earth and broken only by the broken moon. Black and purple both painted the river reflection, and a million sparkles dazzled above water and below. 

Elise must have been as white as her feathers. Gnawing grew in her chest and emanated down, as the boat waded through the river. She had not eaten all day, over the protests of maids and counsellors alike. She tried to stay her nerves. In the past hour she had not only grown a habit of stripping off and replacing her long white gloves, but she had also broken it on insistence of one overly-protective maid. So now she held her hands still by her side, and resorted to surreptitiously biting her tongue inside her mouth. 

As the boat made its approach to the bridge, right in the heart of the Castle Town, Elise drank in the noisy scene by gallons. The cheering, celebrating, commemorating crowd filled the banks, such that they hid the ground floor-colonnades of the houses and shops from view. They were not just her subjects, but humans of all over, come to this auspicious event. Trinkets were almost as numerous of the people ––jewellery and chains, with symbols of the sun… and flames. 

There was a screech in the air, and a bang. Elise seized up. A plume of light spread through the sky like a flower, followed by another. The woman breathed, carefully through her nose so no-one would see she had been startled. The rockets were going on in quick  succession now, and although Elise had known they were coming, no bang failed to make her shiver. 

No-one noticed. When they saw her, the people saw their Queen at most resplendent. Her long chestnut hair was done up in a large braid interweaved with diamonds and lace, with two free locks to rest down past her ears and along her chest. Her regency dress was purely made of white silk but for golden trims, and adorned with feathers and down. The people cheered as the boat bearing her, her advisors and maids and troupe of dancers made the approach. The cheers and chants of devotion, as well as the all-around splendid joy of the people were the first things to make Elise smile today. 

She swung her arm into the air, setting off another loose batch of feathers to fall over the water and waft along the wind. She waved, and it set the crowds into a renewed burst of merriment. As the boat passed under the bridge she held her arm up, brushing her fingers against those reaching down to touch her hand. 

The river banks formed a large circle beyond the bridge, and in the middle of the water stood a large sculpture. What it was a sculpture of was nondescript, although it had wings sweeping up towards an enormous cauldron. 

The boat landed on the base of the altar. Elise stepped forward. 

Hooded figures stood, flanking a small man in red and white vestments, and a tall hat. The man bowed his head, and Elise did the same, hanging hers low as if the weight of the whole ceremony fell upon her head. When she looked up, one of the hooded figures was approaching, holding a torch. 

The flames licked the air, spitting and dancing. It felt the wind. 

Elise took hold of the torch, and as the flame came up to her eyes, she watched the incandescent core of the fire, sharply yellow and blurring out the grey murk of the  surrounding view. Yet there was something deeper. Inside the flame, a red glow stirred. A violence, shaking restlessly; volatile and angry. The fire was growing, not just out of the flame, but growing through her core, bursting from her chest, draping her in scalding warmth as the fire fell onto the water, rushing through the waterways, under the bridge, through the town, burning everything in its path. 

“Your majesty?” 

Elise breathed. Someone had spoken. She looked to her side where her over protective lady-in-waiting was looking up at her with an anxious face. There was no fire in the water, nor scalding on her skin. There was just the silence as the crowd watched on her with every anticipating eye. 

“It’s… it’s alright.” She looked to the pedestal with renewed intent and said, “we give thanks for the blessed flames. May we always continue to have peace. Sun of Soleanna, guide and watch over us with your eternal light.” 

She gently lowered the torched to a sconce before her. No sooner had the flame touched it than it spread all around the rim of the platform. It climbed the wings with a dazzling show of light, like a phoenix alight, until the cauldron erupted with a huge bonfire to wash the whole Castle Town with an orange glow. 

The crowd burst into cheers once again, and a circus of dancing fireworks lit up the sky. The bangs hammered the constant din, but this time Elise was at ease. She closed her eyes. It had been a hectic week. Reschedules, arguments, costings, nights and days just hoping this Festival would go on as planned and with the justice it deserved. But it was all well, and her nerves had been conquered too. No need for tears. When she opened her eyes again, a large firebolt was shooting through the sky with the loudest cry of all, swinging up and up with a long gracious arc. Then it crested the black  and purple sky and started to come down again. It didn’t explode yet. It was going down, down and right towards them. 

The explosion went off with a boom. A quick succession of bangs set the surrounding houses into carnage and flames. There were no cheers anymore, just ringing throughout Elise’s head. Then screams. 

She looked around, trying to see what was going on. The people were in panic, but clouds of smoke meant Elise couldn’t see much more of the crowds. She tried to reach out for the bishop, or one of the hooded men, or her staff. She couldn’t hear or see a single one of them. It was just smoke and screams. Joining the pumping blood by her ear, a wave of trepidation flooded Elise’s nerves. She looked up. 

With the thunderous yawn of jets, a monstrous metal carrier descended through the black clouds, unleashing a flotilla of weaponised bionic robots from its bow. The bots swarmed. Bullets were firing. 

Someone was trying to usher Elise back to the boats, but then a white searchlight blinded them. Coming down as dust particles swept around the landing zone, a hovering platform lowered before her. Stood upon it was a tall bald man. With a flashy red coat, his attire was a cross between a science and military uniform, with white gloves and tall skinny legs. The man was grinning beneath a broad moustache, big red nose and pince-nez. 

“A pleasure to meet you at last, your majesty. Allow me to extend a formal greeting from the Eggman Empire. Perhaps you would like to join me for some  _ diplomatic talks _ .” Her eyes darted around. Bots on all side. Haze and dark formless shapes beyond that. Yells and cries of her people under attack in the distance. She was trapped. She looked back into the unrevealing black glasses of the man. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing but a raggedy breath passed over her dry lips. No. She mustn’t let it happen. The tears were rising  to her eye, while a burning hollowed out her chest, ready to rise and spread and burst forth. Another feather passed by her view. It bobbed along the air, then whisked from view. The dust particles floating under the harsh white searchlight were swirling too, around and around in a sweeping motion across the perimeter of the platform. A wind caught the air, and it was catching fast. 

Whizzing at lightning speed, some sort of blue blur was filling the perimeter. Another one of the Egg-man’s contraptions? Telling from a sudden grimace on his face and the paces back that some of the bots were taking, likely not. The burning was gone, but something was filling her chest. Elise found her voice. 

“I’m sorry, but I must respectfully decline. Your Empire is an illegitimate state, one unrecognised by the United Nations, GUN and my kingdom!” 

Eggman was about to retort when a new, striking voice spoke: 

“Woah! This is a pretty snazzy performance!” 

Standing lax, ––but ready–– was a hedgehog. By the way of the sudden light, there appeared to be streaks of silver, but it was clear within the second that he was blue, with white cloves and sharp, red sneakers. He wore a grin dripping in confidence. 

The reaction from the bots was instantaneous. They unleashed a flurry of machine gun fire, ripping another cloud of smoke on the spot where the hedgehog stood. Elise gasped. But then he jumped from the smoke, high into the air, and taking a full somersault, laughing all the way. He landed with his foot kicking into one of the bots, jumping off and kicking another, and another. He launched himself into each, causing each to spark and explode as he made his way around the ring of robots, finally landing before the last one standing. Sparks bolted through it, and it powered-down in an upright position. The hedgehog tapped it with a lazy foot, tumbling it into the river. 

“You pesky hedgehog!” Eggman screamed. 

“That’s Sonic the Hedgehog, Egghead!” 

Pressing buttons all around, Eggman shouted, “attack him!” and a new wave of robots advanced. 

“Yeah… time to get outta here.” 

Still stunned after watching the scene unfold, Elise barely had time to jump as the hedgehog dashed over to her in the blink of an eye. 

“H-how did you move so fast,” she asked. 

“Haven’t you heard?” the hedgehog, Sonic, swished her off her feet by her back and legs, “I’m the fastest thing alive!” 

* * *

The blue hedgehog was fast. Not only had he destroyed all those machines in half a second, but now was speeding his way down the river bank before any of the missiles could land. He was leaving behind a trail of explosions as each failed to his him and the Queen he carried. It was true, then, this was the one who left destruction in his wake. 

Silver sighed. This was the point he was brought to, atop a building on a day when robots attacked innocent civilians, and there was nothing he could do. This was all history, right? All this destruction was buried decades before he was born. The fate of the past was sealed. It was the future he was meant to save. 

He was alone. Blaze hadn’t shown up with him on the other side. Did that mean he needed to go down and do it? Complete the mission they had sort of taken together? Looking back at the town below, Silver grimaced as he saw the reflection of fire in the water. He tried to find the blue hedgehog again ––the Iblis trigger. Resistance to Eggman’s attack was forming: the city guard and Knights of Soleanna, bedecked in old uniforms but  equipped with enough firepower to hold the robots back. A defensive line ––soldiers, artillery, and two motorised boats–– formed at the bridge. The Iblis trigger was speeding far behind it. Silver hovered from the rooftop and made his way towards them. The dark sky and gun smoke growing in the air were enough to shield him from view. 

This wasn’t  _ the  _ Battle. Not the one Mephiles mentioned. Good. Right? It was day in the recording, when the flames burst. Silver still had time. 

The Iblis Trigger laid down the Queen by a gathering of old men in robes, a tall woman in fine military regalia, and a man in white tie and top hat. 

“Are you safe, your majesty?” the last was asking. 

“Yes, I’m fine, Regis,” though the girl seemed unsteady as she stood on her own feet. She turned to the hedgehog. 

“What are you going to do?” 

“Same as I always do,” he said, jabbing his thumb to the guy, “I got this under control.” 

“All civilians must stay behind the front,” the woman in regalia barked, but to deaf ears. 

The Iblis Trigger gave a great whistle on his fingers. For a few seconds it appeared to have been for no reason but then there was the sound of a propeller yawning through the sky. Silver looked up, where a heavily modified red and white biplane hurtled down, so low as to come to the silver hedgehog’s level. He ducked behind a chimney, though the plane was  staying for long. The Iblis trigger jumped up to the side of one building, kicked off and up to land on another, then fully kicked off so that he landed squarely on the plane just as it crossed his path. Then it was away. 

“Your majesty?” one of the aides spoke.

“Secure the city,” said the Queen, “protect my subjects. And, if you can, help that Hedgehog.” 

The regalia-decked woman headed off, and the Queen similarly directed others among her counselors to do their urgent duties. Then when it was just her and a small body of guards, she let out a steady but ragged sigh. She paced, picking at the tips of her long gloves. 

Then she looked up. Silver held closer to the chimney. She hadn’t seen him, he was sure, though he couldn’t be certain she hadn’t caught a glimpse. 

* * *

Eggman was on the run. No surprise there. 

“What a coward,” Sonic remarked, although he could barely hear himself talk over the whir of the plane and the constant barrage of bullets and missiles below. He was holding onto the struts of the Tornado as it flew upwards, chasing Eggman’s mobile as it fled towards the huge carrier in the sky. It was a rocky ride, with wind crashing it his face and fluttering through his whiskers, but he didn’t mind. Sonic liked the thrill. “Hey Tails, can’t this plane go any faster?” Sonic shouted over to the young two tailed red fox in the cockpit. 

“I didn’t know I was going to need it in a tight spot,” Tails said in a squeaky, nasally voice, “you said this was going to be a vacation!” 

Sonic grinned. “Looks like we don’t get any breaks.” 

Eggman’s mobile stopped ascending, and even turned to face them as reinforcement bots came to flank him. Tails brought the Tornado level. Sonic couldn’t help but cringe at the sight of Eggman’s firepower, especially as the Tornado was heading straight into it. “Tails…?” 

“Hey, I got it!”

Tails pulled a crank, and all of a sudden the propeller fell still. Meanwhile, with a great jolt, a compartment opened and the stirring of an engine started to groan. The plane made a small dip as it lost momentum, but then held steady, hovering in line with Eggman, just across the airspace. 

“Wow, Tails, looks like you kitted this baby out for any occasion.” Sonic then jumped onto the nose of the Tornado and addressed Eggman with, “kidnapping princesses? It’s a little cliché don’t ya think?” 

“I don’t have to explain the intricacies of my plan to a pilfering pestering Hedgehog, and his second-rate ward!” Eggman ranted. 

“Keep him talking,” Tails muttered, “I’ve got just the gadget for him.” But just as Tails started pressing buttons on his dash, a loud beeping came from Eggman’s console, causing Eggman’s eyes to go so wide it was visible over his pince-nez. “What’s this? You have a Chaos Emerald! I think I’ll be taking that, Tails.” With a flourish in his gloved hand, Eggman pressed a button. Out from his mobile came a large extender claw, and, supported by heavy fire from Eggman’s guns, it reached out and broke into the Tornado's hull. 

“Pull out of here!” Sonic yelled. 

Tails sad “I’m trying!” as he frantically pulled the joystick. 

The Tornado wrestled and writhed against the extender arm. Sonic ducked, only just dodging the bullets. 

“The Tornado can’t handle any more pressure, Sonic! We need to get out of here.” He didn’t need telling twice. Sonic span into a ball and shot forward, smashing into the arm of the extender, breaking it into do. He bounced back and stuck the landing by the side of the cockpit. Tails smashed some more buttons, and they were free, and on there way  downwards, towards the earth. 

Sonic looked up. The maniacally laughing doctor was rising up into the safety of his carrier, and shortly it too disappeared beyond the clouds. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love this scene in the game. Clearly they wasted the whole animation budget on these five minutes at the expense of a whole lot else. The buildup and pacing is great and Sonic just throwing himself into what ostensibly starts off as a generic JRPG is just brilliant. Eggman's dialogue was stilted, and the way I've structured the plot means I've decided to excise the whole kidnapped to the desert plot point, so this ends with Eggman failing to capture Elise. Also she's a Queen instead of a Princess, because this is a kingdom not a principality, and she's clearly the reigning monarch so yeah. Otherwise I kind of just went for capturing the essence of this scene as it was in the game


End file.
